Interview
Interview
Stage Times: Laura Jane Grace
Looking back on almost three decades of live performances, from legendary laundromat shows to answering the calls of nature onstage
Enamoured by protest songs and the collision between music and politics at an early age, since first hitting the road with explosive Florida punk outfit Against Me! at the age of 18 – Laura Jane Grace has barely stopped.
A formidable musician equipped with an insatiable drive to create; the last twenty-seven years have seen her forge a career like no other. Tearing through scrappy socially charged punk anthems and baring her soul on heart-wrenching acoustic ballads, each step in her career has been marked by its authenticity, every song peeling back another layer of her artistry.
“I’m so dedicated to the craft, and sometimes that means you release a record that some people aren’t into… But it’s always true to what I’m into,” Grace nods, reflecting on the many projects she has established over the years.
“I’m always trying to work with what the circumstances are whilst doing the best job that I can, staying true to the ethics that I’ve learned and the things that are important to me. Music has always been a priority in my life, and I genuinely love making it. I love writing songs, I love touring, and I love playing shows. It’s just who I am.”
With her second solo album ‘Hole In My Head’ arriving earlier this year, as well as an EP from her freshly birthed project The Mississippi Medicals – comprised of Drive-By Truckers’ Matt Patton, scene legend Mikey Erg, and Grace’s wife Paris Campbell Grace – it’s been a hell of a 2024 for the 43-year-old.
Returning to the UK for some shows following a fellowship with the Onassis Foundation in Greece this summer, this time around she’ll be joined by another selection of musicians, dubbed The Trauma Tropes.
“It’s getting messy… I’m having a hard time keeping track of it myself by this point,” she laughs.
“Any manager will tell you not to do what I’m doing. However, Matt has his other gig with Drive-By Truckers, so he has touring obligations, and Mikey couldn’t do the Europe run. Over the summer, I went to Greece and met Jacopo [Fokas, bass] and Orestis [drums] who both played in a band called Vodka Juniors.”
“We jammed together, played some shows, and then we ended up spending an entire month recording a full-length together. With Matt and Mikey not being able to do the tour, it made sense to bring those guys in and give it a new name. I hate the phrase, but it’s organic. It’s really exciting to have all these things going on.”
Taking her ever-evolving live show from dive bars to stadiums over the last two-and-a-half decades, ahead of Laura Jane Grace’s return to UK shores this November, the multi-faceted musician walks us through some of the most memorable gigs of her career.
The gig that made me want to make music
I actually loved music for so long before I was even exposed to any kind of live performance. I was obsessed with records in elementary school, I got my first guitar when I was eight years old, and I used to make up imaginary bands in my head. It wasn’t until years later that I saw my first concert, but my first show was Green Day. I remember walking away from that show with my best friend Dustin, and both of us said, “That’s it, let’s start a band.”
Your first show is always going to be really impressionable, and Green Day were my first real experience of a touring band. At the same time though, there was a local record store in South Florida called OffBeat Music that I saw my first punk shows in. Those were on a different scale but seeing it in that context helps you realise how accessible it is. It wasn’t like watching some mythical Led Zeppelin level band, it was something that you yourself could actually be.
The first
It’s so embarrassing. My family weren’t overtly religious, but we went to church a lot after my parents divorced. It was mostly for the social aspect, and I think my mom got something out of it. I would go to an after-school youth group at my church, and that’s where I started my first band. Our first three gigs were the church talent shows, and our first performance was an acapella rendition of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’. The second was a full band rendition of John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’, and the third time we played Nirvana’s ‘Heart-Shaped Box’. After that, they told us we weren’t welcome to play the talent show anymore! Shortly after that though, we played at the Collier County Fair, where we covered a Pearl Jam song. There’s videotape footage of that show, so I think that qualifies as the first time I was up on a real stage.
The smallest
One of the earlier Against Me! shows actually became legendary, because we played in a laundromat. It was back when the band was just me and an acoustic guitar, and it was in an apartment complex in Gainesville which some kids lived in. They decided to put on a show in the complex’s laundry room, and they managed to cram about 30 people in there. It was as small as a closet, and I have no idea how they managed to get that many people in.
The biggest
We opened for Foo Fighters at Wembley Stadium, and we also opened for Green Day at Giants Stadium, which holds around 53,000 people. We were just the opening band, but it’s still an experience.
Coming from a punk background, how do you find playing in stadiums, arenas and on big festival stages?
I think that the knee-jerk reaction when I was young and punk was to totally write off the idea of playing something like a stadium or an arena. I saw it as rockstar bullsh*t, but the longer I toured and the bigger the shows got, the more I realised that playing those huge shows is just as valid of a craft. There’s something to be said for blasting through a 30-minute, 10-song set in a basement and seeing everyone go off, and that’s hard to do. It’s admirable to make those shows work, but there’s also something to be said for being able to entertain a room of 80,000 people.
To write it off just because you couldn’t do it is foolish. I’ve seen shows where it’s been totally transcendent, and I’ve wished that I could do that. It’s always impressive to watch how many people behind the scenes there are, and how big of a machine it is. That’s something I remember so perfectly about the Foo Fighters tour. After the show was over, I would climb up and sit in the cheap seats to watch them break down the stage and load it up onto semi-trucks. It’s such a huge operation, and it’s not about any single person, it’s about the group’s concerted effort. When you think about it… That’s pretty punk.
The weirdest
I remember on one European tour; we played a festival on a farm where the stage was built on a cow trough. We were standing in the feeding room for the cows, and it smelled terrible. The stage was at the end of the cow trough, so the trough was almost like a catwalk. It still had the bars all along the side of it which the cows would stick their heads through, which was extremely weird. The show was incredible though, once people filled the room. It was rad, but when we were sound checking we were definitely all like, “What the f*ck have we got ourselves into here.”
The worst
This is fully humiliating, but I wrote about it in my book, so I’ve got to repeat it. Against Me! toured with Mastodon and Cursive back in 2007, and it was definitely a hard-partying tour. My stomach wasn’t in the best of states, and I woke up one morning sick in Denver, Colorado. I had a doctor come out, and they gave me a shot of B12 and a shot of cortisol, which upset my stomach a little more. After that, I decided to do the gig, and I think the altitude was affecting me somewhat. Around three songs from the end of the set, my stomach just dropped. I had to use the bathroom immediately, and it was instant panic. I went over to my guitar tech, and was like, “I need a box.” He gave me a mailing envelope, so I ducked behind my amp, did my business, and then jumped back out to finish the show. After the set, I had to carry the envelope offstage humbly. It was obviously completely humiliating, even though I don’t think anyone saw me.
Continuing the show in that scenario is extremely admirable…
Honestly, it f*cked me up psychologically for years! Up until then, I’d never considered what I would do if I had to use the bathroom in the middle of a show, I just assumed that would never happen. After that, I would constantly panic about whether I’d need to go. It took a while to get over.
The best
There’s a high that you’re always chasing, and I’ve been lucky to hit it a couple of times. The most recent show I played is certainly one of those, and after such a long career, that’s very special to say. I did an Operation Ivy cover set with Catbite at Riot Fest, and there’s a part of me that never wants to play another show again, it was that good. It was at the end of the tour, so I was physically exhausted, but I rallied everything in me. It was the coolest set ever, and I felt so completely alive onstage. Right now, it’s hard to imagine anything beating that feeling.
